Executive team

César Alierta Izuel

Born May 5, 1945, César Alierta holds a degree in law from the University of Zaragoza and an MBA from Columbia University in New York (1970).

He is currently Executive Chairman of Fundación Telefónica and is also a member of the Board of Directors of China Unicom.

Since September, 2010, he has been an independent board member, chairman of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Nominations Committee of the Board of Directors of International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), the company resulting from the merger of Iberia and British Airways.

Mr. Alierta is also a member of the Columbia Business School Board of Overseers and academic of the Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras of Spain.

Between 1970 and 1985, he was General Manager of the Capital Markets division at Banco Urquijo in Madrid. Subsequently, Mr. Alierta was the Chairman and founder of Beta Capital, which he combined as from 1991 with his post as Chairman of the Spanish Financial Analysts' Association. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors and Standing Committee of the Madrid Stock Exchange.

In 1996, César Alierta became Chairman of Tabacalera, S.A., where he directed the cross-border merger with the French company, Seita. The result of this merger was Altadis, where he served as Chairman until July, 2000 when he was appointed Chairman of Telefónica. He has been a member of the Telefónica Board of Directors since 1997. In July 2000 he was appointed Executive Chairman and CEO of Telefónica, S.A., position he held until 8th of April 2016.

Among his most recent awards, in June 2010 César Alierta received the Americas Society Gold Medal in New York, in recognition of his important contribution to the growth and development of Latin America. Five years earlier, also in New York, Alierta had received "The Global Spanish Entrepreneur" award from the Spain/US Chamber of Commerce. This prize was given in recognition of the Telefónica Group's management success which made the company join the NY Dow Jones Global Titans 50 index.

Alierta has chaired the Business Council for Competitiveness (CEC) since its inception in February 2011. CEC is comprised of 15 large Spanish companies and Instituto de Empresa Familiar (Family Business Institute) and was set up as a think tank that puts commitment and effort into its proposals for enhancing competitiveness, contributing to economic recovery and strengthening international confidence in Spain.